[20: influences.]

Uncle Ram made no movement back toward the house.

The light was fading, and the three of them stood in the garden, facing off in a standstill.

Meera felt her hand beginning to throb.

She started for the door, but Uncle Ram blocked her path.

“Don’t think you can come in here. You made your choice. Go with him.”

He stormed inside and Meera’s stomach turned as she heard the click of the lock.


The tears started to well up in her eyes, and the pain in her hand was becoming unbearable.

“Come to the cottage tonight. We’ll figure things out.” Dick seemed as level as always as he put his arm around her.

She cried out as he took her hand.  A purple blotch was already forming, and on the back of her hand, not where she’d caught it.

“Oh, that’s not good. I have another idea. Let’s go to the hospital and get this fixed.” 

His calm was the only thing letting her keep it together.

They traced back around the house, and there was another clicking of a lock as they passed the front door. Dick’s beat up truck was sitting out at the edge of the driveway. He gracefully opened the sticky passenger door for her, and helped her make the step up, since the hand she usually used to haul herself up into it with was now swollen and purple.

The ride to the hospital was excruciating. Every bump or turn hurt.

The emergency department was deserted, thankfully. Just a kid with a nosebleed was waiting when they arrived, and he saw the doctor just a few moments later.

Dick signed the sign-in sheet, and found Meera’s wallet with her ID card, still in the bag she’d brought from school. The attendant at the desk stamped something on the form and tossed it in a basket. 

“The doctor will be with you in a moment.”

It was just a moment. The doctor was a thin, greying man, pleasantly effusive. “How are we tonight? Not so good? What have we got here?” He didn’t pause to let his questions be answered, but Meera wasn’t in a mood to say much anyway.

“Hand, hm. How’d you do this?” The doctor frowned.

Meera shriveled inside. He must know how this happened.